Perils, comforts for RIL in FY26

Reliance Industries Ltd's Q4FY25 results show that EBITDA, from its consumer-facing businesses, has outpaced commodity businesses for the fourth quarter in a row. Retail and digital (mainly telecom) reported an EBITDA growth of 17% year-on-year (y-o-y) to ₹23,526 crore, while oil-to-chemicals (O2C) and upstream showed a 10% drop to ₹20,203 crore.

- Manish Joshi

Despite the seasonality factor of the festival-led consumption boost in Q3, retail revenue and EBITDA fell just 1-2% sequentially. Y-o-y retail revenue was up 16% to ₹78,622 crore. The number of total stores was 19,340 as on 31 March, representing just 3% growth based on the average of the past two quarters and Q4-end figures. Thus, average revenue per store grew by an impressive 13%. Amid stiff competition from quick commerce firms, JioMart's quick commerce gained traction, and saw 2.4x sequential growth in daily orders by FY25-end.

Overall retail EBITDA margin was flattish sequentially, though it was down 10 basis points y-o-y to 8.3%. RIL's own consumer FMCG business hit sales of ₹11,450 crore for FY25. However, given the under 5% contribution to total retail revenue, this is unlikely to have any big impact on EBITDA margin.